Tag Archives: New York City

There are so many reason’s to dig Steve Caballero. The fact that he is one of the premiere ambassadors of skateboarding is one reason…The fact he lives a life full of strong faith and conviction which he uses to inspire is another good reason. At THOS we have even recently gone out of pocket to show how much we dig his music (a third good reason) . So if you were unaware and were also looking for a further reason to dig Cab here are some images from his recent art exhibition in Santa Cruz. Jeff stopped by last night and they chatted like old friends.

Steve has a cool visual vocabulary: Hot Rods, Helmets, animals and 70’s Japanese Movies and Television….he is adept at painting with acrylics, pen and ink, silk screening and stencilling.

Back in 2009 I was sent a vid of Romona from [En-Jay] Chris at S-one, that is when I saw Ben Raybourn huck a padless McTwist and was gobsmacked. Soon after I discovered LandShark wheels via another video of Ben killing it in the Bondai Bowl, san’s pads once again. I thought if you are gonna skate that aggressively with nothing to protect yourself but your wheels your gonna only ride good wheels. Then I discovered a video of Kristian Svitak skating while I was searching for a Damned song and got drawn in further. This all got my DIY Ethos Brain thinking and I suddenly wanted a shop that offered any choice of wheel as long as that choice was Landshark! So here is this new indy wheel company with these aggressive skaters, a great wheel that has a no flat spot guarantee with a name and a logo based on a bad tattoo decision by founder Kristian Svitak and the band FANG…what more could push one over the edge to the realisation that this could be the the greatest wheel company of all time…..then Mike Vallely and Bill Danforth decided to ride for them! That was it for me…. an email to Mike and a bit of back n forth and there you go….LandShark in THOS Shop and for all the reasons above I would be hard pressed to add another wheel.

So here is the multi-media recap:

Raybourn’s Pad less McTwist, catch a glimpse of Tag’s Frontside invert over the channel right afterwards too.

Raybourn kills it in the Bondai Bowl..LandShark discovered

Kristian Svitak discovered killing it on street to The Damned

Bad Tattoos make great Company names and logos….

FANG! Yeah I probably should have put up the LandShark song but this video is too badass to leave out.

Danforth is in……

so is Vallely.

So I put my money where my mouth is and THOS Shop is in too….

As you may surmise I am having a blast setting up and slowly building this shop, everyone is excited that it is growing via the community we have created and that it is supporting some old school values. Now that we are all burdened by the internet and its unlimited choices it feels cool to have a place that only offers ‘One’ Choice….the obvious one!

We launched THOS Video Podcast because some footage just deserves better packaging. Just as THOS was the archive to dust off a thousand skate albums and encourage the archiving of new and existing photographs THOS Video Podcast was instituted to encourage the dusting off of VHS tapes and encourage original and unique new filmmaking. Footage from past and present with great music…that simple. Things are different in Itunes land and projects like this need to be viewed regularly and updated frequently or Steve Jobs comes in and pulls the plug personally (seriously). That is what makes projects like this all the more exciting though.

So if you want to support this new project the number one thing you can do as always is to contribute! Videos, Itunes friendly music, suggestions etc etc

We need you to head over to Itunes and write a couple sentences about why you dig THOS! The podcast already has subscribers in the three digit realm and is steadily climbing the skate ranks even before I write this. More reviews, quality episodes and subscribers will take us to the front page of Itunes.

Because of the nature of this project I have also added a donation jar to The Podcasts Website anyone who feels compelled to assist with the financing of this ongoing project will have their names, their links or ‘anonymous’ displayed prominently on the site and in upcoming vids and become forever known as natural born world-shakers.

There is also our ever growing Emporium of Coolness where the story continues as told by the products. (more on this later)

Some special thanks to Sophie ,Mike Vallely, Larry Ransom, Totally Skateboarding, The Philly Warehouse Crew, Steve Mannion,The Raging Lamos, The Spaced out Weirdos, FDR’s mystery filmmaker, anyone who ever visited The Barn, Jim and Dennis Kane, Team Steam and everyone I ever went to school with.

Here at THOS we are in the JPG delivery business(tip of the hat to the Penny-Arcade business model joke) and when a JPG like this comes your way, well…business is good! This is what we call in the JPG trade…..Badass , Classic or a Gem. A big thanks to Charles Samuels for taking such a killer pic and also Bryan Karl Lathrop (more on how BKL is changing the face of skate photography a little later on in THOS) for helping bring this to THOS archive.

Nice One!

JasonSpring of 1999. The Asbury pool had just gotten started, thanks to yeoman’s efforts by Tom Martyn (I recall him telling me that he left the pump running all night long, which spill many thousands of gallons of water out through the parking lot into the street. T.A. was in town because he was in philly frequently to visit his kid, Zephyr, who lived with his ex in Chestnut Hill. Philly crew hooked up w/ TA at FDR and set up a road trip from philly. Photo wouldn’t have happened if TA hadn’t been contacted by Charlie Samuels, who wanted to interview him for a documentary he was doing. Session lasted 4+ hours. Damn I miss that pool.

Bryan Karl lathrop

An amazing session that was! We shot video, 8mm film and stills for my documentary on the Wizard Skateboard Team (from Rockland County NY) due out this year. I not only met, skated with, cleaned out the pool with and interviewed one of my childhood heroes, Tony Alva, but I also photographed him pulling airs and I found myself in the same position Skateboarder magazine photographer Warren Bolster was in. Seeing T.A. through my lens brought me back to the days of combing through Skateboarder magazine — my bible in the late ’70’s.

Back in 1996 5 Boro launched as a line of boards as opposed to one board but after talking with Steve Rodriguez I found out that the ‘Yellow Logo’ was the first sample he received so I thought that seemed like the deck to focus on for The Hall of Fame. Steve like a lot of us hails from [En-Jay] where all things east coast great and skate seem to claim some origin or connection. We all have similar Histories and stories with regards to NYC and skating. Such as taking the train or the Bus in, collecting toys from Children’s of Paradise, tofu Chilli dogs from Pupp’s place, heading up town with our skates for some other reason like a comic conventions and discovering a wealth of new skate spots, punk shows at The Ritz and of course hanging out at the Brooklyn Bridge banks. It seemed like everyone was from Jersey hanging out there. I personally never really accomplished much when it came to street skating, couldn’t ollie a bottle cap but I remember thinking back then there were two types of street skaters those who can get over that damm divider and those who could not…Steve was one of the ones who could.

Its now 15 years later since he founded the aptly named 5Boro and the brand is still going strong. Steve has evolved into a major voice and consultant to skating and the people entrusted with decisions about skating in the actual Five Boroughs which is fine by me. So check out 5Boro today and dont be surprised if you are casting a vote for Steve R as Mayor of NY someday.

Jason

PS: As always if you have one of these gems send me an email pic, you earned the right to brag about it! I will add it to the post. Also feel free to leave some comments below about Steve and the brand as well.